I am not—and was not—pregnant.
But that would require that they have a file where they note the apparent pregnancy status of woman entering the country, and then call it up on departure to compare. Which is IMO creepy and also not likely to be happening.
Have you ever crossed a boarder, particularly the US boarder? They ask very creepy questions at times. I think it’s part of their job to find the creepiest question to ask. Quite recently we were addressed by name before handing over any documents, still scratching our heads on that one. But more to this point, it is apparent that customs agents look at their computer and I would assume can enter notes, so perhaps it was marked if she was pregnant.
"What was the nature of your travel?’ Asked for the third time, and I’m perspiring like mad, even though I haven’t done a damn thing wrong. One day I’m probably going to start babbling, “OK, OK, I did it, I GIVE UP!”
Crossing into the US, they indeed can ask all kinds of questions. But there is no border check or passport control LEAVING the US, so there’s nobody to check the second part: whether the person is still pregnant when she leaves.
I definitely didn’t get impregnated in between landing at LAX and leaving 4–5 hours later… 
Yeah, those airport amenities have really declined since Covid.
I once stayed at my brother’s condo in Florida while he and his fiancee went on a short vacation and I watched their cat. How did I steal a job? I paid for my own airfare. So what would be the difference if I did this for a non-family member who was a friend? Or a foreign relative? Or a foreign friend?
Nothing.
If this were me, I would have just lied and told them what they want to hear; that I’m just passing thru to visit a friend. Maybe the cat-sitting network should have an “unwritten” rule that if asked, anyone coming to visit is doing just that, visiting. No need to tell anyone that you’d be leaving them alone to watch your abode/pet. It’s no one’s effing business.
Getting caught lying is MUCH worse than not declaring something. It could mean being non-admissible to the US in the future or additional sanctions.
If you’re a US citizen, these rules don’t apply to you. If you are a visitor to the US on a non-employment visa then you can’t accept any compensation. There’s a way to get a proper visa for that, and deciding to ignore that rule has consequences for a visitor.
Also, labor laws can be different for family.
For example, child labor law restrictions are relaxed for children of people who solely own/operate a business. There is a difference in US law for a child working at the parents’ business and having that child work for somebody else, even if the nature of the work and number of hours is functionally equivalent. We would not cavalierly say it is not the business of anybody but the family whether or not that violates labor law.
I was essentially ‘just visiting’ and told immigration I wanted to go to each of the Canadian cities like any other tourist.
When they got funny about why I spent so long in the States (75 days between January and April), I had to say I was house sitting. It seems pretty farfetched I have friends in Seattle, Austin, NYC (three different homes), Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago and Portland who are ALL letting me stay for free. For sometimes up to two or three weeks…
Yes, they get suspicious you are working if your stay is long and they want an explanation of how you meet your accommodation costs. Who would let you stay for free,?
I often host people through hospitality exchange sites and guests sometimes offer this as an explanation for their low cost travel. Sometimes immigration want proof of this, which can be problematic, because both sides have to be consistent in what is an informal arrangement. It is not like a hotel or hostel booking. So I usually advise them to have a hostel booking arranged. It is also not a good idea to say you plan to stay many months. That would require further explanation about the relationship between the guest and the host. Easy if you are related in some way and you have proof. But if you don’t have any connections, then what? You will be wild camping in the great outdoors for months? Some people stay on farms for free and in return for food and lodging do a few chores…but that is work! So you cannot say that.
Questions lead to more questions. These days they want to see your social media account. Or they want to see your bank balance for evidence you have funds to sustain a long stay without working. Or you have a job to go back to, so are already employed.
These days the job market has changed and remote working is more common. There is a generation of ‘digital nomads’ out there who make a living with a laptop on beach,much to the envy of their friends. They are very prominent on social media.
Very few countries have any sort of visa that allows this. Nor have national tax systems any provision that makes it viable.
So the cat sitters, couch surfers and digital nomads live in fear of crossing immigration on ‘training day’ when immigration officers earn points for weeding out such minor irregularities.
I am sure we can rest safely in our beds confident that tax dollars are being spent making life difficult for enterprising young travellers.
The officers are being investigated by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, but I am yet to receive an update (my first call with the ‘special agent’ was on 21 July).
BTW, I think it’s pretty cool that you’re posting here, and welcome to the boards. We have lots of forums, and not all the threads are about immigration officers. You should check out the rest of the place.
I’ve recently been watching clips & episodes on Youtube of immigration and customs officials from various countries. There are multiple channels that feature these–Danger TV, Real Responders, and Border Force Australia are the ones that I’ve watched.
The point is that there are people in every country’s border control who are power-mad, rude, or both. One episode featured a guy from Ireland(?) who was visiting his girlfriend and her family in Canada. He was planning to help them put up a wall in either their house or shed. It’s important to note that they did not have any money to hire anybody to do this work. BUT-- the Canadian officials let him in under the strict condition that he not do anything like that–
Because it would be “taking work away from a Canadian.”
Nevermind that if he didn’t do it, the work would not get done at all, because they couldn’t afford to hire anybody to do it. This fact made absolutely no impression on the officials.
And remember, the Canadians are supposed to be the nice ones!
I’ve seen so many officials in various countries in these episodes pull aside travelers for extra screening based on some random thing. And so many countries are happy to confiscate cash above a certain amount unless the unlucky person can PROVE RIGHT THEN AND THERE that they got the money legally.
Blockquote The point is that there are people in every country’s border control who are power-mad, rude, or both. One episode featured a guy from Ireland(?) who was visiting his girlfriend and her family in Canada. He was planning to help them put up a wall in either their house or shed. It’s important to note that they did not have any money to hire anybody to do this work. BUT-- the Canadian officials let him in under the strict condition that he not do anything like that– Because it would be “taking work away from a Canadian.”
I’ve read about a lot of these kinds of situations since The Guardian published their story about what happened to me at LAX. A crazier example: Family members coming to see a newborn and immigration asking if they intended to look after the baby.
Yeah, I’ve always been taught not to give more info than necessary at customs/immigration, and take the attitude of “I’m just a tourist visiting so and so…” No need to say you’re helping build a house/garage/whatever. “I’m visiting friends/family.” Period. My ex-girlfriends Hungarian friend got turned around at the border in the US by blurting out that she was visiting her fiance to get married (because she was so excited she was telling everyone, it seems – this is a boyfriend she met in Hungary and had been with for years.) Well, immigration didn’t like something about that answer and sent her on a plane back to Budapest. Would have been able to visit if she just kept it simple: “I’m here to visit friends/tourism.”
CBP agent’s thoughts; “Uh huh… ‘marrying’ your ‘fiancé’ … riiiiight, Ms Mail-Order”
They basically work on the Littlefinger principle: what is the worst possible reason why these people would be saying or doing this.
They don’t want you becoming an American’s spouse while on waiver in US soil, even though that would NOT mean you get to stay. Their thinking is: “You want to marry an American? Marry him in YOUR country then stay there until he goes through all the red tape to bring you in, like normal people.”
This would be a pretty bright-line violation of terms of a visa. You’re not supposed to work on a tourist visa, you don’t haggle over the economic fine points. It’s a pretty basic and universal immigration law in most countries. Arguably the law sucks, arguably there’s room for leniency, but border patrol isn’t the place to have that argument.
As far as supposedly “nice” countries go, you’re not going to find anything as trashy as US CBP asking someone if they had an abortion. For crying out loud, there’s not even a federal law against having an abortion! There is zero reason in their job description to ask that question, other than to abuse their power because foreigners have no recourse.
As I sad, if you want to know what world cops wish we lived in, look how things are done at CBP. US cops would love to violate people’s rights like that. It’s why they should be filmed every second they’re interacting with the public.
And at the crossing or in the “border zone”, citizens don’t have that much more.